Atomic Nerds

Halloween means horror movie season, on the cable channels, in the rental stores, and pulled from our shelves. Horror remains a perennial money-maker of a genre; if you want to make something on a budget and get some sort of release, you’ve basically got two choices: arty indie film that no one outside of Film Studies will ever watch, or a B horror flick. And, as we’ve stated before, we are definitely fans of the latter genre; while most of it is dreck, it’s often fun dreck, and the nature of it means a cast and crew with more talent than money can make something great if they have the skill to, without the pressures of a major studio release. The last one we had the pleasure to come across was Behind The Mask.

We are pleased to report we’ve come across another such direct-to-DVD gem in Trick ‘r’ Treat. We’d seen previews for it on other of our DVDs of the same general B movie family, but it took two years to come out and missed theaters. Apparently the studio was jerking them around. The studio’s loss; this was better than most if not all the theatrical horror offerings this year, and I can see it as having been a smash at the box office if had been released at this time of year.

This movie takes the classic and now-neglected scary-movie format of the anthology piece and breathes a little fresh air into it. Creepshow was the last great example, and Trick ‘r’ Treat does it one better by weaving its four stories together. This would have been a recipe for complete and utter disaster in less skilled hands, but Michael Dougherty (and possibly Bryan Singer, who was the producer, but I don’t know the extent of his involvement) pulls it off about as well as I can imagine it being done. There’s a bit of chronological confusion at points, but by the end of the movie the viewer that has been paying a little bit of attention can figure out the order of events; it’s not a keep-you-guessing gimmick as it is in some movies, but it doesn’t spell everything out in alphabet letters either. Overall, the movie’s motto is “show, don’t tell”; it embraces the concept that having a creepy-looking monster crawl out from under the stairs and start some mayhem is more attention-getting and scarier than having a big long explanation for the revenge-seeking spirit of a drowned little boy (or whatever), followed by the appearance of the now-diminished baddie to come do some things that are now more predictable for having gotten the backstory. There’s only a real storyline for one of the vignettes, and even then the viewer is left to paint in the most tantalizing details for him or herself.

What I really loved about it, though, was another thing that has a classic, eighties feel; the movie is scary, but it’s not about wrenching the viewer around and making him jump out of his seat or fight the urge to turn away from the screen, it’s about being a fast, exciting ride. Far too many horror movies of late have been about gore-porn and coming up with the most viscerally revolting and disturbing images they can get past the puke test; this one has some gore, but it’s not the point. Next to any of the Saw franchise it might as well be rated PG, but it’s far more watchable, because the sensation that’s aimed for isn’t so much “Oh god, what’s coming next” as “What next, what next!” It’s about being scary and fun, not scary and disturbing, and that’s refreshing as all hell. There are some twists and subversions, but they’re not about turning the entire thing upside down as it would be with one of Shyalaman’s (increasingly desperate and increasingly ludicrous) movies; it remains very much true to the genre the whole way, just not necessarily as the viewer initially expects.

The other thing I really like about it is the characters. We don’t get to know any of them very well, and that’s okay; we’re not meant to, and besides there wouldn’t be time. What they are is another thing that’s increasingly rare in horror movies: likeable, up to and including when we really shouldn’t be sympathizing with them. All too often horror movies give us people we’re meant to hate so much it’s gratifying when they get killed off, either because they’re loathsome or because they’re annoying. These people come off much more as just people, and not particularly saintly or awful ones (except in the cases where they really are awful). They react believably, and there’s not an idiot ball to be seen. There are, however, lots of shout-outs- which for once are done with more of a subtly raised eyebrow than a leering “SEE WHAT I DID THAR?!”

Oh, and also it did what I thought was impossible- live up to the creepy image on its poster. Two thumbs up, we’ll be buying this one and, I think, making it a seasonal tradition. Watch with beer and a bucket of cheap candy.

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